Back from our break in Sydney - despite only being here for 3 months we both seem to have turned into country bumkins and spent much time commenting on the traffic, planes going overhead and noisy neighbours... Woody thoroughly enjoyed himself and became a slightly scruffy city dog - latte's on Balmain High Street, the Fish Markets and Fox Studios were all on his to do list and he was mobbed by many people to the point at which if we walked past someone in the street he would immediately sit down and expect to be fussed over... We did the usual - drove over the Harbour Bridge without meaning to, held up the toll booth because we didn't have enough money (luckily not inciting road rage in the queue of cars behind us), lots of shopping and got to catch up with friends and family. On return it seems that everything has grown, except Archie who remains stubbornly determined to grow out but not up. He is about to go up with Mum today but he is still not much bigger than a week old piglet. Fingers crossed.
Meanwhile the weather is really very hot - it is 9.30 in the morning and I can hear the cicadas outside. Whether this is a contributory factor I know not, however we seem to be overrun with spiders - yesterday Fiona and Vanessa found one that I believe had I seen it I may have packed my bags and run away. Last night we had 2 crawl across the carpet whilst watching tv, one in the toilet, I got up to let the dogs out and counted 3 in my half awake state but just to show you how much better I am at coping I left them where they were and went back to bed. I am talking about really quite large huntsmans of the type I had nightmares about encountering when we came back here. I am used to watching very carefully when picking up clothes from the floor, banging wellies and opening cupboard doors (after one fell at my feet when doing the latter). This doesn't mean that I enjoy it and every time I see one I tend to at least, swear, and at worst yell and scream that I can't take it any more and demand that we get a pest exterminator in. My point is, in the UK prior to leaving I was seriously considering going to a hypnotherapist or cognitive behaviour therapist to conquer my fear of spiders - I can't believe I am coping. I haven't told James about the cockroaches that keep scuttling along the floor, I am saving that for when the spiders get too much because I think the sight of one would have him on the phone to Rentokil immediately.